The list of brain receptor targets for opiates reads like a fraternity: Mu Delta Kappa. Until now, the mu opioid receptor received the most attention in alcoholism research.
A new study in Biological Psychiatry, led by Brendan Walker, WSU associate professor of psychology, used a rat model of alcohol dependence to directly investigate the kappa opioid receptor (KOR) system following chronic alcohol exposure and withdrawal. These findings provide researchers with a potentially successful path to developing new drugs for the treatment of alcoholism.
Exploding head syndrome may sound like a made-up condition, but it’s a real and frightening medical disorder that’s also surprisingly common, according to a study led by Brian Sharpless, assistant professor of psychology at WSU.
People with exploding head syndrome (EHS) hear loud noises when going to sleep or on waking up. The type of noise can vary from explosions and fireworks to slammed doors, the sound of a gun firing, an enormous roar, shouting, thunder or a crack of lightning. The noises start suddenly and last for a few seconds.
“It can be very frightening and scary for those who do not know what is happening,” Sharpless said. It can lead to sleeping problems and worse: an attack may cause temporary tachycardia.
The study published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews suggests that the disorder may affect as many as one in 10 people at some time during their life. The most likely explanation is that there is some kind of temporary blip in the nerve cells of the brain during the switch from being awake to sleeping, Sharpless said.
For years, women have kept their heads down and played by the rules, certain that, with enough hard work, their natural talents would be recognized and rewarded. Meanwhile, the men around them have continued to be promoted faster and paid more.
Evidence shows that women are less self-assured than men—and that success depends as much on confidence as on competence. WSU assistant professor of psychology Joyce Ehrlinger’s research is helping to explain why and what women can do about it.
Ehrlinger has studied the impact of women’s preconceived notions about their own ability on their confidence. She found that women’s comparatively lower confidence “led them not to want to pursue future opportunities.”
Scientists say pot holds broad medical potential, but strict rules hinder its study
In a secluded lab at WSU Pullman, furry vermin are providing startling revelations about marijuana and its effects on the sexes.
Rebecca Craft, professor and chair of psychology, has been studying male and female rats to see if they react differently to the drug. And it looks like she’s on to something, especially when it comes to THC, the chemical in marijuana that creates a sense of euphoria for recreational users.
There are many other things Craft also wants to investigate about the plant, especially about how women react to it differently than men. “It’s something we need to be talking about, and not in a knee-jerk way,” Craft said. “It does have some reasonable uses.”
Research recently published by David K. Marcus, WSU professor of psychology, was featured in a New York Times article about the role of spite in social order.
Reporting in February in the journal Psychological Assessment, Dr. Marcus and his colleagues presented the preliminary results from their new “spitefulness scale,” a 17-item survey they created to assess individual differences in spitefulness, just as existing personality tests measure traits like agreeableness and extroversion.
While psychologists are exploring spitefulness in its customary role as a negative trait—a lapse that should be embarrassing but is often sublimated as righteousness (as when you take your own sour time pulling out of a parking space because you notice another car is waiting for it and you’ll show that vulture who’s boss here, even though you’re wasting your own time, too)—evolutionary theorists, by contrast, are studying what might be viewed as the brighter side of spite and the role it may have played in the origin of admirable traits like a cooperative spirit and a sense of fair play.
The new research on spite transcends older notions that we are savage, selfish brutes at heart, as well as more recent suggestions that humans are inherently affiliative creatures yearning to love and connect. Instead, it concludes that vice and virtue, like the two sides of a V, may be inextricably linked.
